Mint Salon: A fresh perspective
A new industrial-meets-farm house concept is the latest addition to the Lodi beauty scene.
Hair salon owner Lindsey Wentz hopes to offer clients a unique experience with an open layout and custom-designed stations to give customers a bit more privacy during their appointments.
“I am just really inspired by natural textures and natural looks of wood and stone and wanted to keep it clean and uncluttered,” Wentz said. “So we did a lot of natural wood textures, and we commissioned the stations to be custom built by a friend of ours who did metal fabrication. I wanted something that would be very special that was going to last and felt unique.”
Wentz has also added an educational component to her salon, offering multiple classes throughout the year. Both in-house and other licensed hair stylists in the area can learn new techniques and perfect their existing ones. The salon has already hosted a cutting class and two demonstrations are scheduled for January. In February, Shannel Mariano, a national educator in cutting, will hold a class.
Wentz wanted to build a solid team that works together and can bounce ideas off each other in an open, creative space where it’s safe to experiment and try new things, she said. She also aimed to create a space which brings something new to the community — a safe place to pamper yourself and have some me-time.
The space currently holds 13 stations with space open for a few more stylists to join the team.
Before starting a career in hair, Wentz worked as a graphic designer in Colorado for a veterinary diagnostic company, where she later transitioned to sales and outside sales. It was that job that brought her to California. The job didn’t work out but she loved the area and decided to stay, pivoting her experience to other sales positions.
In the fall of 2010 she met her now-husband Ryan Wentz, a Lodi fire captain. They met on his boat in the Delta, brought together through their mutual love of wakeboarding. The couple decided to settle in Lodi — a great place to start a family, she said, and Ryan encouraged her to pursue a career in a field she loved.
Wentz finished her education in 2011, then worked for
several local salons for six years before taking the leap and opening her own business. She said it’s been a fun experience, crediting her husband with helping bring the vision together and staying involved with the construction and making sure it was done correctly and to the upscale level they wanted.
“I kind of wanted to open something more on the level of a Los Angeles or San Francisco kind of experience and bring in outside education for the industry of this area in general,” Wentz said.
The name of the salon — Mint — is displayed on the wall of the salon, and under it is a definition of the word.
“I think it speaks to someone taking really good care of you while you are here, and to you leaving feeling really refreshed and really renewed,” Wentz said.
The approximately 2,400square-feet salon, which opened on Sept. 1, is located in the space of the old Music Box, which has a strong history in the Lodi area. The planning and construction time was made extra busy as the couple added to their family of three (they also have a 2-year-old son) welcomed the newest addition — a baby boy — just two days after getting their construction permit.
“So it was crazy, but we did it,” Wentz said.